


The Greatest Story Never Told

by HelloBenjamin



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, The Library
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-27
Updated: 2014-03-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 04:58:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1374667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloBenjamin/pseuds/HelloBenjamin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor reaches up to connect two hyper-cup links from his place in the swing beneath the console when she arrives with an electric blast and the smell of burning time.<br/>“Hello Sweetie.”<br/>“River!” He clambers up the stairs to the main console to see the woman who just dropped by. “And what sort of trouble do you have for me today?”<br/>“Why must I be in trouble?” she asks, “Can’t I pop in for a visit without being chased down by a rabid monster?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Greatest Story Never Told

([X](http://youtu.be/8YONPpWj31s))

The Doctor reaches up to connect two hyper-cup links from his place in the swing beneath the console when she arrives with an electric blast and the smell of burning time.

“Hello Sweetie.”

“River!” He clambers up the stairs to the main console to see the woman who just dropped by. “And what sort of trouble do you have for me today?”

“Why must I be in trouble?” she asks, “Can’t I pop in for a visit without being chased down by a rabid monster?”

The Doctor reaches her in a matter of seconds and stops before her. He stands so close he can feel her breath against his face.

“Oh, shut up,” he says before diving his hands into her curls and pulling her in for a kiss. He feels her arms loop around his waist, pulling him in closer to her.

“Hmm. I take it you know who I am then?” River says when they finally part. The Doctor rests his arms on her shoulders before replying.

“Child of the TARDIS. Wife. Oh, I definitely know who you are.” He gives her a brief kiss. “You aren’t in trouble, are you?”

She pulls away from him and twirls around the TARDIS console. “Just a little dispute with a few Slitheen. They won’t miss me.”

The Doctor gives a small laugh before chasing after and pulling her into another deep kiss.

“Do I hear River? Is River in there with you?” comes a voice from the hallway above. Amy comes round the corner, closely followed by Rory. She walks down the stairs, crossing her arms sternly but this is belayed by her teasing smile. The Doctor and River pull apart. He feels blood rush to his face as embarrassment kicks in.

“Well, it’s a good thing we came in then,” she scolds, “Who _knows_ what would have happened with you two _alone.”_

“Oh god, that is _not_ something I want to think about,” Rory says. “River. Are you okay?”

The Doctor turns to face River, noticing that she’s gone terribly pale. Amy and Rory rush down to hers and the Doctor’s side as the Doctor steps closer to her, placing a hand on her forehead to check for temperature.

“River, what’s wrong. What’s happened?” he asks her urgently. If something happened, if something is hurting her…

“It’s okay, I’m fine.” She pushes him off. She doesn’t seem fine. She turns back to face Amy and Rory and for the briefest moment she looks at them like it’s a miracle they’re even standing there. A feeling of unease washes over the Doctor. The only reason River would look at them like that would be if… The Doctor pushes that thought away. It would not do him well to dwell on it. Everyone’s here now.

River composes herself, and acting like nothing happened, she faces her parents properly. “Hello Mother. Father.”

River’s…reaction is put behind them as her parent greet their daughter. They all swap hugs and ‘how are you’s before the Doctor interrupts them, clapping his hands together and twirling around to face them all.      

“Good. The gangs all here.” He moves excitedly around the console, flipping switches and pressing buttons. “Where to then? _Oh!_ How about the Anti-Grav restaurant on Ganymede in the 63rd century. Or the battle of Bunker Hill. That’s a fun one. _Or Disney World!_ Let go to Disney. The most magical place on Earth, apparently. Although I have seen many other places on Earth that you could deem far more magical than that.

River cuts him off, “Actually, I was hoping for a nice cup of tea with my family. How’s that sound?”

“That sounds _brilliant,_ ” Rory says,“I’ll go put on a kettle.”

 

*          *          *

 

“ _Careful Rory._ That pot was a gift from Emperor Hongzhi. It’s very precious!” The Doctor takes the ceramic tea pot that Rory had just been attempting to steep tea in and shoos Rory off.

“So what are you doing now that you’re out of prison? I hope you don’t sit around all day waiting for _him_ to show up,” Amy says, pointing at the Doctor who gives a disgruntled shout.

“Of course not.” River laughs. “I’ve been employed by the University. They made me a professor!”

Amy and Rory congratulate her on this. The Doctor doesn’t quite share their joy. Oh, he’s proud of her, of course. His bespoked psychopath finally shaking the last of the Silence’s shackles off her. But becoming a professor puts her one step closer to… _No, don’t think about that._ The Doctor picks up the teapot and starts carrying it carefully to the table, choosing not to worry about River. Why should he? He knows that she spends years, decades even, teaching at Luna. She could just as easily be at the beginning of her time there as she can be to _that._

“Do anything else in your spare time?” Amy asks River.      

“Yes, I also go on archaeological expeditions. It’s a dream.”

Rory goes to the table haphazardly carrying four mugs. And he wonders why the Doctor wouldn’t let him near his incredibly valuable Ming dynasty teapot.

“Any upcoming ones?” Rory asks once he gets the mugs to the table without somehow breaking them.

“Yes, actually!” River exclaims, “I was hired to excavate this planet called the Library.”

 _No! No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!_ She can’t be! She can’t go there! It’s too soon! It has to be too soon. It just has to! The Doctor wants to scream at her. Tell her not to go. Warn her. Or make up some reason to convince her not to. Anything. He can’t just let her go off to her death. Not now! He’s not ready! Even if he still sees more of her, past versions of her. _It’s not fair!_

Shouting breaks through his panic. He looks up and sees three worried faces staring at him. He steps forward, intending to assure them that everything is fine, but when he puts his foot down, he hears something crunch underfoot. He looks down and sees the shattered remains of the Ming dynasty pot. The floor and the front of his trousers are soaked with tea.  

River slowly moves towards him, like someone approaching a scared animal who might lash out if approached to fast. “Are you okay, Sweetie?”

The Doctor crouches down and starts picking up shards, keeping his eyes carefully averted away from his wife. “I’m fine. Just slipped out of my hands, is all. Doesn’t matter.”

Amy crouches next to him, holding a large, fluffy brown towel that she uses to start mopping up the spilt tea.

“What happened to ‘Be careful, this teapot is a thousand years old and more expensive than all the wages you will ever earn. Don’t break it!’?” Amy asks in her best mock Doctor.

“Oi. I don’t sound like that,” he retorts. He really doesn’t feel like banter at the moment, but if it makes them forget that moment there…

“That is definitely what you sound like,” Amy laughs. Scene definitely put behind them, then.

Amy hands River her own towel. “Tell us about this Library then, River.”

_No. Don’t tell us about it. Don’t talk about. Don’t go to it. Don’t, don’t, don’t!_

“Oh, it’s a library the size of a planet!” River explains, “It’s supposed to store every book ever written. But the whole planet’s been closed off for a hundred years. No one knows why. The last message to come out of was ‘The lights are going out’ and ‘4022 saved. No survivors.’”

“How can there be 4022 saved if there are no survivors? And what does it mean by ‘the lights are going out’?” Amy asks.

“No one knows,” says River. The Doctor knows. “That’s why I going. To find out why it closed.”

“When are you set to go?” Rory asks.

“In one month.”

 _One Month!?!_ The Doctor’s mind floods with panic, causing him to miss the next bit of the conversation. He manages to zone in enough to hear Amy say,“I bet you’ll figure it out five minutes after getting there and _ohmygodDoctoryourhands!”_

What? The Doctor looks down at his hands which are pressed hard against the floor amidst the puddle of tea and ceramic shards. Red liquid is seeping out from under them, slowly mixing in with the tea. Blood, the Doctor realizes. His blood. He jolts his hands off the floor and hastily stands up, flipping his hands to examine them. His hands are in shreds. There are long gashes across both hands from where larger pieces of ceramic had pressed up against skin. Smaller cuts fill the spaces between gashes, some still have tiny shards of ceramic embedded in them.      

“Let me look,” Rory says as he steps up to the Doctor. He grabs the Doctor’s wrists but the Doctor yanks them away and steps back away from Rory, from everything. “Doctor, I’m a nurse, I can help.”

“Yes Rory, I’m well aware of that,” the Doctor snaps. Rory jumps back at this, obviously shocked at the Doctor’s reaction.

He shouldn’t be acting this way. He should be smiling and laughing and trying his damnedest to look like he isn’t in a world of grief. He’s supposed to be the Doctor. The man who makes everything better. He’s supposed to be strong. At least to his companions. He can’t break down in front of Amy and Rory. He’ll let himself fall apart in front of River, but not when it’s about her. He can’t let them see the damage.

He stumbles backwards and stutters, “I’m sorry… It’s just… I’m… I can’t…”

He can’t take it. He can feel himself visibly shaking. Three faces stare at him, all with mixes of worry and fear. But he can’t hide for them right now. He glances quickly at River but quickly looks away as he fills with a hollow feeling of loss. So he does the only thing he knows how to do. The only thing he’s ever done.

He runs.

He rushes out of the room, away from their faces. He runs down the corridor, ignoring the shouts of his companions, his family. He stumbles through doors and corridors, not caring about which way he’s going or where he’ll end up. Just so long as River’s death doesn’t follow him.

Most of the time he’s fine, or at least annoyingly content, with his and River’s twisted front-to-back timeline. The spoilers and diary checks are just parts of life with her. Whenever he’s with her, running down a corridor as something shoots at them or relaxing at a little café or deep in the TARDIS in their room making love, is perfect. He wouldn’t rather do anything else. Most days he loves her too much to care.

But some days, like this one, everything comes crashing down around him and he wants to scream at the universe. Scream and kick and yell at the unfairness of this life and what they’ve been through, What River’s had to go through because of the Silence and him. How he met her and the pain in her face every time an earlier version of him yelled at her or told her that he didn’t trust her. The time he wasted running from her out of fear. The uncertainty in her face whenever he met with a younger version of her. Loving her hurts so much.

After everything he’s done for the universe he thinks he deserves something better than this. She certainly does.

He eventually stops to catch his breath. He doesn’t know how long he runs for or how deep in the TARDIS he is. He leans against the wall next to him, placing a hand to rest against it only to recoil back in pain from his injuries. He steps back and takes in his surroundings, the third floor of the library, his library. He should be deeper in the TARDIS though, given how long he had been running. The TARDIS must have directed him in here then. He curses at her for bringing him here, the library of all places. It just serves as a reminder of the inevitability of River’s end.

Unable to hold it in any longer, the Doctor collapses into a fit of sobs.

 

*          *          *

 

_The Doctor’s head pounds as he groggily looks up at the woman wiring herself up to the computer. He scrambles to an upright position as he realizes what River is doing._

_“Oh, no, no, no, no. Come on, what are you doing? That's my job.”_

_“Oh, and I'm not allowed to have a career, I suppose?”_

_He tries to tugs his hand away from the computer module he’s by. “Why am I handcuffed? Why do you even have handcuffs?”_

_“Spoilers.”_

_“This is not a joke. Stop this now. This is going to kill you! I'd have a chance, you don't have any.”_

_“You wouldn't have a chance, and neither do I! I'm timing it for the end of the countdown. There'll be a blip in the command flow. That way it should improve our chances of a clean download.”_

_“River, please. No.”_

_“Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried.”_

_“AUTODESTRUCT IN ONE MINUTE.”_

_“You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the library. You even gave me your screwdriver. That should have been a clue.”_

_The Doctor sees his screwdriver with hers on the floor on top of her diary. He scrambles to grab one but they’re just out of his reach._

_“There's nothing you can do.”_

_“You can let me do this.”_

_“If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.”_

_“Time can be rewritten.”_

_“Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run.”_

_“River, you know my name.”_

_“AUTODESTRUCT IN TEN”_

_“You whispered my name in my ear. There's only one reason I would ever tell anyone my name. There's only one time I could.”_

_“Hush, now.”_

_“FOUR, THREE”_

_“Spoilers.”_

_“TWO, ONE.”_

_He watches as River joins two power cables together and a blinding light comes and takes his future._

 

*          *          *

 

“Doctor! _Doctor! Wake up!”_

The Doctor snaps awake and looks blearily to see Rory hovering over him.

“Rory? What are you doin here?” the Doctor asks groggily. He attempts to push himself into an upright position only to recoil back as his hands make contact with the ground.

“Looking for you,” Rory responds. “You’ve been missing for hours.”

He doesn’t push any farther, only kneels down by the Doctor and grabs his hands to examine them. The Doctor doesn’t pull them back this time.

“Should get that patched up,” he says.

The Doctor puts his hands together, palm to palm. The yellow glow of regeneration energy seeps out from between his fingers. When he separates his hands, they are fully healed. A few ceramic shards dust them, which he brushes off.

Rory stares at the Doctor’s hands, clearly impressed. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Residual energy. Just a bit of left-over. Not enough left for a full regeneration,” the Doctor explains. Rory doesn’t question what he means by ‘not enough left’.

The Doctor looks down at his hands. “Please don’t tell River. She won’t like that I wasted some like this.”

Rory just nods. The Doctor likes this about Rory. Always loyal.

“Um, Doctor,” Rory begins hesitantly, only continuing after the Doctor looks at him, “When you were asleep, you kept saying River’s name. In fact, you kept saying things like ‘River don’t’ and ‘No, River’. And back in the kitchen you didn’t react until River mentioned the Library and then you completely freaked out. Are you… were you there with her?”

The Doctor quickly nods once.

“Okay, what happened there?”

“It’s where I met her,” the Doctor whispers.

Rory stands up and rubs a hand over his face.

“She’s not going to make it off that planet, is she?” Rory asks, though it sounds more like a statement.

The Doctor’s mouth gaps open and closed in surprise. How can Rory know? How can he just guess that like that? New tears begin to form in his eyes, confirming Rory’s suspicion. Rory steps back, turning away from the Doctor, hand across his mouth stifling a sob.

“She said something like this would happen. Back in Florida with the Silence, before we even knew who she was. When we were in those tunnels together she said that one day she'd meet a version of you who didn't know her and she thought it was going to kill her,” Rory says. He leans against the wall beside the Doctor and slides down it till he’s sitting. “I didn't think she actually would die, though! I thought she would just…” He stops at this, stifling a sob.

“She... I” the Doctor tries to explain but he can’t find the words to. So he tries to apologize instead.

“I'm sorry... I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry,” He repeats this over and over until it fades into another fit of sobs. He doesn’t want to do this in front of Rory, but he can’t stop, not even when he feels arms wrap around him, pulling him into Rory’s shoulder. It’s weird, being comforted like this, crying on the shoulder of his friend/father-in-laws (even he’s still not use to that) whom he’s usually so careful about remaining strong around about the death of his wife who is still currently on the TARDIS looking for him. It doesn’t help that the woman he’s mourning is the daughter of the man who’s comforting him. Brave heart Rory who’s pushed aside his feelings for the Doctor. He is his daughter’s father.

He doesn’t know how long they stay like this, until the Doctor can’t shed anymore tears and doesn’t think he could possibly feel anymore. But eventually he pulls away from Rory and composes himself, working on getting his usual mask in place.

“Come on!” Rory gets up and offers a hand to the Doctor, who takes it, and hoists him up. “The wives will be wondering where we got off to.

“If it means anything, she saved a lot of people. Including me,” the Doctor tells him. He deserves something in terms of an explanation, but the Doctor doesn’t trust himself to be able to say anything else.

“She does that all the time,” Rory says and the Doctor can’t help but let out a small laugh at this. “I guess you don’t want me telling River that either?”

The Doctor shakes his head. “And if you could not tell Amy too. I don’t she’d be able to take knowing River’s…”

“Okay.”

Rory pulls the Doctor into a hug. The Doctor whispers another ‘I’m sorry, into Rory’s shoulder.

 

*          *          *

 

The Doctor bounds down to the TARDIS console like a child on a sugar high, acting like nothing’s happened. Rory trailing behind him. The only other person currently in the room is Amy

“And where have you been?” she asks, very obviously cross.

“Can’t tell you,” he responds, “Secret Time Lord things, Pond. Very hush, hush.

“Don’t lie to me. I know when you’re lying. Don’t tell me ‘secret Time Lord things’. You bloody well stormed off!”

The Doctor ignores this and goes to fiddle with the console. Amy huffs and turns towards Rory for explanation instead.

“Alright, where was he?” she asks.

“Third floor, library.”

“ _But I looked there!_ ”

Amy’s shouts are cut short as River bursts into the room.

“ _Where the hell have you been?!_ ” she shouts as she storms over to the Doctor.

The Doctor braces himself for a slap only to lose his breath when she tackle hugs him.

“Oh, you know, places,” he replies though a mouthful of curls, a bit shocked at the lack of physical punishment.

River pulls back. “Alright, I know when to drop the subject. How’s your hands? They looked like they got cut up pretty bad.”

“All better. Use some nanogenes I got from a Chula warship awhile back,” he lies.

The Doctor smiles at River and twirls around to start fiddling with the console. He looks around at his companions catching a glimpse at Rory who is frowning deeply. Amy and River seem to have already put what happened behind them, content with the idea that they aren’t getting anything out of him now, anyway.

Still, the Doctor needs a distraction.

“Didn’t I mention Disney World earlier?” He goes around the console, prepping the TARDIS for flight. “You know, I’ve _never_ actually been there before. Why don’t we go _right now_? Do they have a tea cup ride? I _love_ tea cup rides.”

“Yes, my love, they do,” River says and pulls a lever, sending them into the time vortex.

“You can let me fly it.”

“Or we could go we’re supposed to. You’ll just cause us to land in the middle of a battle during the American Civil War.”

 


End file.
